Mediterranean Europe/ Das mediterrane Europa

In 1993 when the conflict was at its height in Yugoslavia, American political scientist Samuel Huntington published an essay that provoked not just heated controversy and opposition, but was also to have a big influence on the political establishment in the US and Europe for years to come.

The book’s publication coincided with the siege of Sarajevo when libraries, museums and theatres were bombarded from surrounding hillsides. At that time, in the name of the West, fanatics wanted to see the destruction of the memory of any coexistence of Muslims, Orthodox, Jews and Catholics. The writer Dževad Karahasan had just fled to the West to report on this attempted annihilation of cultural memory within his city. Or to put this more hopefully – of a culture of dialogue, which influenced Sarajevo, of a piece of Europe, which was permeated by the meeting of cultures, religions and mentalities …